Best Run of My Life!

Finally - the best blog post ever about the best run on the best day of my life. Okay, enough of trying to make you gag. Just know that this will do all my thoughts and feelings little justice, but I will try!

So about a week-and-a-half ago (July 29 to be exact), Ryan and I set out for a nice, early morning 5 miles around his neighborhood. We went to a park near his house and decided to run a few loops there to start. We noticed a new path/walkway leading up to the amphitheater there/big field in front of it and decided to stop on the second loop to check it out (any excuse to stop is always welcomed in my book).  While we were standing there, Ryan made a comment about his headphones not working right. He unplugged them and started pulling them out from under his shirt and there was a ring looped around the cord. You can imagine my surprise...or maybe you can't. I WAS SURPRISED. He got down on one knee and asked me to marry him and of course, I said YES!

Needless to say, we did not finish the run (which has been subsequent runs a little challenging...what? no stopping to give me a present?). After taking a few minutes to enjoy the moment/take it all in, we headed back to Ryan's parents' house and when we walked up, I saw my parents' car in the driveway and immediately started crying...again. A nice little RunKeeper shout out - they were all tracking us so they could see when we were heading back. Anyway, I couldn't have been happier to have them there to be part of the celebration. Ryan's brother, Sean, and his girlfriend, Sarah, were in town from California and I was so happy to have them be part of the moment too. Champagne for everyone!

The entire day was an amazing whirlwind. This summer has treated me incredibly well and I've thought a lot about how great it would be if we could "bottle up" good feelings and memories so we never lose their strength or clarity. I've never wanted it more than in that moment, yet I quickly realized that we are blessed to have a lifetime of those moments ahead us. The love, support, cards, and kind words we have been showered with from our friends and family in these past weeks has been incredible and I feel lucky to be surrounded by so many wonderful people, both in body and spirit (since they live far away, not because I'm friends with ghosts...uhh). 

One of my most favorite running/life quotes is from Kara Goucher: That's the thing about running: your greatest runs are rarely measured by racing success. They are moments in time when running allows you to see how wonderful life is. More and more, I've seen, or rather, felt, the truth in this. Sometimes, the good is so good and it's hard to conceive how you got that lucky. I've thought a lot this summer about the feeling you used to get jumping off the high-dive as a kid - that incredible rush and release, the feeling of being on-top-of-the-world and screaming your head off and laughing afterwards at just how crazy wonderful it was....and that's how I feel. Running is the big-kid form of the high-dive high. Oftentimes, running is seen as stress manager, but it can also be a break from the day-to-day routine to take time to appreciate the good in your life and reflect. If running is my high-dive high, then I anticipate there will be a lot of it in this next year...and in all the years of our life together :O). 

Olympic Marathon

To beat the heat this morning, Ryan and I got up early to run, which gave me a chance to watch the start of the marathon (while he was sloooowly crawling out of bed). I am just now watching the remainder of the event, as I paused it for our run, but I'm not going to lie - I may or may not have thought I was running in the Olympics when we headed out this morning. 

I'm not sure how watching a televised marathon became an anticipated and exciting event for me. It was probably the 2010 NYC Marathon, when I went to watch and cheer on Sindy. Watching and hearing about the excitement on TV, and then being able to walk right outside to watch it all unfold in the flesh was exhilarating. The closeness a the broadcast allows for made the actual event feel so intimate. While I love watching so many other Olympic events, running naturally feels so close to me. I am aware of how removed I am from the realities of gymnastics, for example; how spoiled I am from watching the world's best every four years, unaware of the true skill and gifts they have. When I am watching distance running, I am in awe of their hard work, commitment, and strength in a way I simply can't conceive when watching other sports.  


It's been a slow few weeks getting back into a routine, both in practice and in mind. Maybe it's been my return to Michigan and resuming a (minimally, to stay the least) schedule and day-to-day life. It could be all the outside factors in my life or in my running or in my Olympic watching. Most likely, it's a culmination of factors and I'm grateful for it all. It feels good to be nearing a mental place where I feel ready to train for my next half, where I'm excited, confident, and motivated.   


Back to the event to see who the winners will be.....!

Find Your Greatness

Mid-run engagement post to come soon, but in the meantime, I loooove this commercial. Snaps to Nike for hitting the nail on the head yet again!

The Secret to Summer Running

I have figured it out and I am now ready to share it with fellow runners, family, and friends. To beat the heat, you must....literally beat the heat. As in get up early. MYSTERY SOLVED!!!

Of course, easier said than done! I have been blessed with some weeks of true vacation to return back East and visit with family and friends I've missed living in Michigan this past year. That being said, maintaining a semi-regular routine has been challenging and while for some people, vacation = throw the routine out the window, that poses some problems for me. I do better with structure.

This became all too clear when Ryan and I decided to sleep in a little on Tuesday and paid for it in the WORST WAY with what felt like the hottest run of my life. It was a rude awakening and definitely made me think about my approach to training, particularly in this summer of freedom. The hour-by-hour weather forecast has always been a good friend of mine, so it's time I bump our relationship up to the next level and settle down. Commit. Make it official.

When I trained for Philly two summer ago, I definitely made major adjustments to my schedule based on the weather, and I honestly just need to get back there. It could be for a whole variety of reasons, but I don't feel like I had as gradual of an adjustment this summer. Either way, if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen (so you can go to bed and wake up early!).

Anyway, I didn't need to get up "real people early" this AM, but setting my alarm DEFINITELY helped to make this morning's run more enjoyable/less like a close encounter with the devil.....AND if I was too hot, I got a nice cool-off when it started to downpour. It was more funny than anything else, until I walked into my garage and my phone stopped working. It's soaking in a nice rice/jambalaya mix as we speak, so fingers crossed he'll be resurrected!

Olympic Warm Fuzzies

My excitement has been building and the moments are almost here....SUMMER OLYMPICS 2012! I have always been a big fan of the Olympics and I would say my more recent interest in running/reading of Runner's World has only increased my excitement for the next few weeks. Not surprisingly, I LOVE the personal backstories and beautifully edited montages that summarize athletes journeys and struggles to make it to the Games. Today, Marni shared this one - The man with no country: Runner plans to compete at London Games under Olympic flag. Dreamers everywhere - get excited!

Serious Fun Network/North Star Reach

"I wish I could recall with clarity the impulse the compelled me to help bring camp into being. I'd be pleased if I could announce a motive of lofty purpose. I've been accused of compassion, of altruism, of devotion to Christian, Hebrew, and Moslem ethic, but however desperate I am to claim ownership of a high ideal, I cannot. I wanted, I think, to acknowledge Luck: the chance of it, the benevolence of it in my life, and the brutality of it in lives of others: made especially savage for children because they may not be allowed the good fortune of a lifetime to correct it." - Paul Newman 


A few years ago, I had the good fortune of getting involved with the Serious Fun Network (then known as the Association of Hole in the Wall Camps) and since 2007, these amazing camps have only further inched their way into my heart. Paul Newman founded the first camp in Connecticut in the very year I was founded, and the network has continued to grow since then. The camps are designed to give children with life-altering conditions and illnesses the chance to simply be kids in a safe and loving environment.  Spending a week at The Painted Turtle and a week at Hole in the Wall Gang Camp left such an imprint that I wanted to do my part to help send children to camp (because yes, it's free!). This was the push I needed to commit to my first half-marathon, which I ran as part of Team Hole in the Wall. 


About a month after I moved out to Michigan last summer, I learned of North Star Reach, a provisional member of the Serious Fun Network, being built just 30 miles from where I live! Last month, before leaving for New Orleans, I had the wonderful honor of accompanying 3 kids to their first week of magic at Hole in the Wall Gang Camp as part of the Camp on the Move program. This initiative sends deserving children to a camp already in existence while one closer to them is being built. This summer, 30+ kids were sent from Michigan to three different Hole in the Wall camps - Hole in the Wall Gang Camp in Connecticut, Victory Junction in North Carolina, and Double H in New York. As a travel chaperone, my job was to help the kids get to the fun....and then sadly turn around and come back! Due to the craziness of this summer, I'm not able to spend a full week at camp, but I still wanted to be involved and even if it was only for about an hour (the length of a very tasty lunch, thank you very much!), it was so great being back at Hole in the Wall and it made me want to share the love with all those I love....so expect forceful invitations to get involved and volunteer in summers to come!


Yesterday, I started reading Shameless Exploitation in Pursuit of the Common Good, written by Paul Newman and his partner, A. E. Hotchner, about the start of mass producing salad dressing, the creation of Newman's Own, and the beginning of Hole in the Wall Gang Camp and its related camps. While I knew funding for each camp did not solely come from Newman's Own, I didn't know that to this day, 100% of all profit is donated to charity - WOWZAS! The book was an easy, quick read (did I mention I finished it today?), and it made me feel all the emotions of a good book - happiness, hopeful, love, and appreciation - and I would recommend it to all. It's a good reminder of the importance of giving to others, as well as eating quality pasta sauce. 

Time of your life: GO!

ahh - so many things I could post about after being completely MIA. In a dream world, I will catch up/fill in/cover it all over the next few weeks, but we'll see how well that goes. While the rest of the summer will afford me with more free time (=time to start training!), the traveling/visiting will be ongoing...which is great! I'm ecstatic and grateful for the time and flexibility to visit with family and friends back home after a year of mid-west living.

This morning was what I can call the first run on the training calendar for October's half and aside from the undeniable fact that it was pretty brutal, it felt (mentally) great to be back out there, slowly easing back into a familiar routine. While running and I continue to be swing back-and-forth on this continuum of absolute love and completely loathing, there's something comforting about it.

As for the past month, it has been madness, in the most wonderful of ways - Camp on the Move for North Star Reach/Serious Fun Network; 2 weeks of service learning with a group of 27 amazing teens  in New Orleans + a few days of vacationing down there with Ryan.  I will need to blog about it all just just so I can be sure I didn't just dream it up a few months from now :O).